Spokane DX Association

The SteppIR antenna and Rohn 25 tower became a casualties of Wind Storm 15 Tuesday night, November 17, at the QTH of Mike N7KR. Anyone else have damage photos?

A Gap Voyager bit the dust at the QTH of our SDXA Secretery Jay WA0WWW. He had 2 up & phased for 80m, 40m and 160m. One survived. it was about a 60mph that took it; it was down wind from the house and Jay says that the winds were accelerated and circling once over the house that twisted it and brought it down.

SDXA Logging Programs by ki7dg

He who owns the Field Day site QTH does generator duty.

A little more to the left!
SDXA FIELD DAY SUMMARY LINK

NEXT: November 28-29, 2015:CQ WW DX CW LINK

There is an news article at this ORCA LINK on the recent 2014-2015 competition win of the ORCA folks from British Columbia. SDXA, at the annual Winter Awards Banquet, gives out a nice certificate for any member who enters all ten contests. Scores do not have to be huge to enter these contests and list your results. The member with the highest total score gets a special certificate!

The clubs participating are:

– BC DX Club LINK
– Idaho DX Association LINK
– Orca DXCC Club (new) LINK
– Spokane DX Association LINK
– Western Washington DX Club LINK
– Willamette Valley DX Club LINK

What you do is to enter as some or all of these contests and submit your scores (besides to the contest sponsor such as CQ Magazine or the ARRL) to our SDXA Secretary Jay WA0WWW who keeps a running tally for each SDXA entrant. At irregular intervals, he will publish the latest partial SDXA member scores in the contest. And hopefully we can get a tally of how each club is doing against each other.

CONTEST LISTING IN DATE ORDER

1. done: September 26-27, 2015: CQ WW DX RTTY LINK

2. done: October 24-25, 2015: CQ WW DX SSB LINK

3. done: November 28-29, 2015: CQ WW DX CW LINK
4. NEXT: January 2-3, 2016: ARRL RTTY RU LINK
5. February 13-14, 2016: CQ WPX RTTY LINK
6. February 20-21, 2016: ARRL DX CW LINK
7. March 5-6, 2016: ARRL DX SSB LINK
8. March 26-27, 2016: CQ WPX SSB LINK
9. May 28-29, 2016: CQ WPX CW LINK
10. July 9-10, 2016: IARU HF CHAMPIONSHIP LINK

Some of these links go to last year’s rules as the sponsors have not kept us up with the future contest rules. As these are made available, the Links will be valid.

The results of the Salmon Run (Washington QSO Party), held on September 19-20, 2015, are available at this SALMON RUN RESULTS LINK. The contest is sponsored by our sister DX club – the Western Washington DX Club (WWDXC) of the Seattle area. Awards are given for the highest score in each of the 39 Washington counties. The SDXA gives a plaque to the high score in this category:

Single Operator
Operating from the EWA Section of the ARRL (20 of the 39 counties)
Low Power
Mixed Mode (2 or more of the 3 modes).

We have had quite a few different SDXA member winners including both Gary K7OX (3 times) and Lamar WA7LT (one time), two of the founders of the SDXA. Also, Wilse WX7P (SK) once. But the most-time winner is W7WMO Gene Bye in Ephrata who won it from Grant County five times.

And Guess what? He has won it again this year! Six times out of 13 contests! His score this year was 52,976 points from 245 QSOs and 73 multipliers.

Congratulations again to Gene Buy W7WMO of Ephrata.

In the club competition, SDXA took 7th with a total of 172,078 points. In the Washington CW mobile category, Randy K7TQ/m and his sidekick Jay WA0WWW took first with 498 QSOs. Non-SDXA AB7MP took first from Spokane County with the highest score. Don’t we have any Spokane County members in the SDXA? Chuck KI7DG had the high score from Okanogan County with 68,992 points.

Object: To work as many stations as possible on any and all amateur bands (excluding the 60, 30, 17, and 12-meter bands) and in doing so to learn to operate in abnormal situations in less than optimal conditions. A premium is placed on developing skills to meet the challenges of emergency preparedness as well as to acquaint the general public with the capabilities of Amateur Radio.
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The first SDXA Field Day was in 2003. Here are the results of every year.
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Dates: 2010

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Dates: June 27-28, 2009

K7SDX (category 2D)

2334 points from 626 QSOs
1st in 2D category in EWA Section
2nd highest in EWA Section in all categories
1st in 2D category in NW Division
31st in NW Division in all categories out of 178 entrants
4th in entire contest in 2D category out of 20 entrants
779th out of 2603 in entire contest – all categories
10 participants

Pat K7HRT operates at the Field Day site located at the QTH of Dan N5AR near Deer Park

Dan N5AR’s unique antenna farm

For more pictures, go to 2009 FD LINK

W6AEA entered in the 1D category with 1552 points from 751 QSOs.
1st in 1D category in EWA Section
6th overall in EWA Section in all categories
1st in 1D category in NW Division
66th in NW Division in all categories out of 178 entrants
17th in entire contest in 1D category out of 371 entrants
1186th out of 2603 in entire contest – all categories

K7AWB entered in the 1D category with 106 points from 28 QSOs.

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Dates: June 14-16, 2008

SDXA entered the 2D category with 4050 points from 1065 QSOs.

We had the highest overall score of all 13 EWA entries in all categories. We were the only 2D entry in the section.

We had the highest 2D score in the NW Division and took 10th out of 157 in all NW categories.

Nationally, including Canada, there were 15 entries in the 2D category. SDXA took 2nd in that category behind VE2CWT.

We finished 347th out of 2,410 entries in all categories. That puts us in the top 14%.

A link to a previous article about this year’s Field Day can be found at: LINK
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Dates: June 23-24, 2007

The Spokane DX Association (SDXA) entered the 2A category with 19 participants, achieving 6862 points with 1627 QSOs.

We took 1st place in the Idaho Section in both the 2A category and in all categories. We were 2092 points ahead of the 2nd place finisher in Idaho.

In the 2A category nationally, we were 38th out of 478. We were 2nd out of 29 in the 2A category in the Northwestern Division.

In all categories combined, we took 5th out of 157 overall in the Northwestern Division and we were 122th out of 2333 entrants in all categories nationally – that is in the top 5.2%.

What is interesting is our continual improvement in the Northwestern Division. Take a look at this progress:

2003 ….. 10th place overall
2004 ….. 9th place overall
2005 ….. 8th place overall
2006 ….. 6th place overall
2007 ….. 5th place overall

At this rate, will we be #1 in the year 2011?

Our site again was the Jacklin Center between Rathdrum and Post Falls, ID.

SUMMARY
5th place in overall Northwestern Division out of 157
1st place in overall Idaho Section out of 15
2nd place in Category 2A in Northwestern Division out of 29
1st place in Category 2A in Idaho Section out of 3
38th place in Category 2A nationally out of 478
168th place overall nationally out of 2184 (in the top 7.7%)
19 participants
W3AS GOTA station

score 6862; QSOs 1627

George W6AEA worked from his basement shack to take 1st in the EWA Section in the 1D category; that was 8th overall out of 16 in the total EWA Section with 922 points from 218 QSOs.

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Dates: June 24-25, 2006

The Spokane DX Association (SDXA) and the Kootenai Amateur Radio Society (KARS), in a joint effort, entered the 2A category with 31 participants, achieving 6140 points with 1656 QSOs.

We took 1st place in the Idaho Section in the 2A category and 2nd in Idaho in all categories, being beaten by the QRP station of Steve W7QC, operating at 5000 feet in North Idaho. The QRP category awards 5 points as a multiplier and he made 703 QSOs for 7,480 points. In the 2A category in the Idaho Section, behind us in 2nd place, was AB7HP, the Hewlett-Packard club station of Boise with less than half our total.

In the 2A category nationally, we were 49th out of 455. We were 3rd out of 33 in the 2A category in the Northwestern Division.

In all categories combined, we took 6th out of 133 overall in the Northwestern Division and we were 168th out of 2184 entrants in all categories nationally – that is in the top 7.7%.

Our site again was the Jacklin Center between Rathdrum and Post Falls, ID, but this year we were joined by the members of the Kootenai Amateur Radio Society as a joint effort. Photos of the event can be found at this link PHOTOS.

SUMMARY
6th place in overall Northwestern Division out of 133
2nd place in overall Idaho Section out of 13
3rd place in Category 2A in Northwestern Division out of 23
1st place in Category 2A in Idaho Section out of 4
49th place in Category 2A nationally out of 455
168th place overall nationally out of 2184 (in the top 7.7%)
31 participants
K7ID GOTA station

score 6140; QSOs 1656

George W6AEA worked from his basement shack to take 12th out of 19th in the EWA Section in the 1E category with 434 points from 104 QSOs.

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Dates: June 25-26, 2005

The Spokane DX Association entered the 2A category with 29 participants, achieving 6028 points with 1614 QSOs. We took 1st place in Idaho in the 2A category and in all categories. We took 8th in the Northwestern Division in all categories. In the 2A category, we took 3rd out of 27 in the Northwestern Division and 50th nationally out of 451. We were 173rd out of 2202 entrants in all categories nationally – that is in the top 8%.

Our site again was the Jacklin Center between Rathdrum and Post Falls, ID. Photos of the event can be found at Photos.

SUMMARY
8th place in overall Northwestern Division out of 122
1st place in overall Idaho Section out of 12
3rd place in Category 2A in Northwestern Division out of 27
1st place in Category 2A in Idaho Section out of 3
50th place in Category 2A nationally out of 451
173rd place overall nationally out of 2202 (in the top 7.9%)
29 participants
W3AS GOTA station

score 6028; QSOs 1614

Dates: June 26-27, 2004

The Spokane DX Association entered the 2A category with 13 participants, achieving 5870 points with 1520 QSOs. We took 1st place in Idaho in all categories; we took 9th in the Northwestern Division in all categories, 2nd in the 2A category. We were 187th out of the entire 2250 stations.

Our site again was the Jacklin Center between Rathdrum and Post Falls, ID. Photos of the event can be found at Photos.

SUMMARY
9th place in overall Northwestern Division out of 142
1st place in overall Idaho Section out of 18
2nd place in Category 2A in Northwestern Division out of 30
1st place in Category 2A in Idaho Section out of 3
59th place in Category 2A nationally out of 455
187th place overall nationally out of 2250 (in the top 8.3%)
13 participants
W3AS GOTA station

score 5870; QSOs 1520

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Dates: June 28-29, 2003

The Spokane DX Association entered the 2A category with 29 participants, achieving 5106 points with 1532 QSOs. We took 2nd place in Idaho in all categories; we took 1st place in Idaho in the 2A category. We took 10th in the Northwestern Division in all categories out of 130 entries and 2nd in the 2A category. We were 199th out of the entire 2085 stations; we were 62nd out of all the 429 2A stations..

Our site again was the Jacklin Center between Rathdrum and Post Falls, ID. Photos of the event can be found at Photos.

SUMMARY
10th place in overall Northwestern Division out of 130
2nd place in overall Idaho Section out of 11
2nd place in Category 2A in Northwestern Division out of 17
1st place in Category 2A in Idaho Section out of 2
62nd place in Category 2A nationally out of 429
199th place overall nationally out of 2085 (in the top 9.5%)
29 participants
W3AS GOTA station

score 5106; QSOs 1532
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This presentation was given by Randy W7TJ at the November, 2015 SDXA meeting. It is a 25 page Microsoft PowerPoint document (.pptx) and takes a few seconds to download.

HEARD ISLAND DXPEDITION LINK

(Lance, from Frenchtown, MT, was one of our SDXA-sponsored speakers at our 2013 PNW DX Convention in Spokane Valley talking about his 6-meter Clipperton DXpedition – TX5K).

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What is the Fred Fish award?

Fred Fish W5FF(SK) was the first ham to work all 488 maidenhead 6-meter grids in the continental USA. The new Fred Fish Award was given to him posthumously in 2008 as their newest ARRL award. There are only six amateurs that have gotten the award. Lance should be #7. Working all 488 grids is tough; some grids are ham-less, at least on 6 meters. Some are swamps; some are accessed only by boat.

Here is the FRED FISH LINK to the ARRL site. Incidentally, SDXA member Mark W7MEM has 480 confirmed, only 8 remaining. Steve K7AWB has 412 of the 488.

Lance recently announced his working the final 488th grid (FN67 in Maine):

“What a great birthday present I had tonight! At 0204Z September 28, 2015 – just as
the eclipsed full moon rose over the mountain here – I completed with KB3SII on 6m
EME for my grid number 488 for the FFMA award 😉 KB3SII and K1WHS are currently on EME on 50.190 from FN67aa, and also making other contacts on EME. 6m Degradation is -0.9 and Kp is 1.7. 6m EME cndx are UNBELIEVABLE!”

Lance initiates many 6-meter DXpeditions using EME for his contacts. Here is a DXPEDITION LINK to his latest in Micronesia in August, 2015. This article has beautiful pictures and a great description of his trip including the flames out of the bottom of his amplifier. Lance maintains the [email protected] reflector too.

In early December 1983, operating from Montana as WA1JXN, Lance was the first radio amateur to communicate with the Space Shuttle. Astronaut Dr. Owen Garriot, W5LFL. He was contacted using Lance’s 2m EME array of 12 yagis as STS-9 passed down along the West Coast of the USA. Lance has ARRL DXCC #11 for 2-meters as well as a 6-meter DXCC.

His great technical website is at this W7GJ LINK.

November 2015 Minutes

The three piles in the background are from last time the bureau sent a package; the ones in the foreground came today. All will be answered on a rainy day. That is Bo the Dog in the background.